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Leslie Hepburn Buckler

Biographical Information

Born in London, England, Professor Buckler received his education in the United States. Buckler finished his undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins University in 1912. He enrolled in graduate school at Johns Hopkins, and he earned a Master’s degree in Political Science in 1914 while dually-enrolled as a student at the University of Maryland Law School. From 1914 to 1916, he pursed an education in Special Studies at Harvard Law School before entering military service in France in World War I. Buckler practiced law for a decade after WWI. He joined the University of Virginia Law School’s faculty as an Associate Professor. He became a Professor in 1932, and Buckler was later named the James Monroe Professor of Law. Buckler taught such courses as Introduction to Principles of Analysis and Advocacy, Legal History, Professional Ethics, Property, Constitutional Law, Torts, Trade Regulation, Conflicts of Law, Legislation, and seminars in Corporation Finance and Foreign Trade and Investment.

When Clark Hall was constructed, Dean Lile searched in vain for the right legal quotation to place above the entrance of the new Law School. Buckler composed the words that were inscribed there in 1932 and were later inscribed on the current Law School building, “That those alone may be servants of the law who labor with learning, courage, and devotion to preserve liberty and promote justice.” Upon his retirement in 1956, the Barrister noted that the “Law School will lose one of its finest teachers and most distinctive personalities. A thinker who could ‘spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind,’ Mr. Buckler taught his students not to be content to seek the meaning of the law in a logical vacuum but rather to understand the working of law in society and the attempt through law to meet new challenges pragmatically while still adjusting to old demands.” He died in 1965.

Position:

Professor, The James Monroe Professor of Law

Associate Professor

Affiliation:

Faculty

Faculty Presence:

1929 to 1956

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